OAM’s work highlighted in the Grand Rapids Press

Dr. David Bielema with a young Haitian patient in a rural mission clinic east of Port Au Prince. The little girl had an open wound to her foot and needed multiple surgeries. Courtesy Photo from the Grand Rapids Press

West Michigan orthopaedic surgeons gave own blood as they worked to save patients injured in Haiti earthquake

By Ted Roelofs | The Grand Rapids Press

February 09, 2010, 11:28AM

As earthquake recovery in Haiti continues, a group of West Michigan medical volunteers is finding rays of hope amid despair and destruction. At a small health clinic east of capital city Port-Au-Prince, a teenage boy with a broken pelvis was dying from loss of blood.

West Michigan orthopedic surgeon Gregory Golladay sized up the options, then acted.

“He was the same blood type as me. He had a hemoglobin level of 5. You don’t have that and live long. His heart rate was 150. His blood pressure was 80 and going south. He was going to die.”

“I gave as much as I could into an IV bag and he lived,” recalled Golladay, 39, who is among a rotating group of physicians from Orthopedic Associates of Michigan offering critically needed medical care in Haiti.

Orthopedic surgeon Gregory J. Golladay transfused his own blood to help save Calixte Duckerson, shown resting in a rural mission clinic in Haiti. Courtesy photo of the Grand Rapids Press

“It is indescribable really. To see him survive was a very emotional experience. We said we were brothers and I believe it.”

Joined by West Michigan anesthesiologists, physician assistants and nurses, they have been on the ground since a week after the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed an estimated 200,000 and displaced millions of Haitians. They are working in tandem with Partners in Health, a Boston-based nonprofit organization that has been in Haiti since 1987.

Golladay was repeatedly humbled by the spirit of Haitians who had every reason to curse their fate. Instead, patients would thank doctors for cutting off infected limbs. A girl on a bus loaded with injured and sick earthquake victims broke out singing, “How Great Thou Art.”

“I’ve got to tell you the Haitian people are incredibly stoic, positive, and resilient, much stouter than we are,” said Golladay, who helped administer and organize the operation in Haiti. “This earthquake was incredibly destructive, but in a lot of ways their spirit was not broken.

“I went down there for them. But it changed me.”

The effort stemmed from an old connection between surgeon Mark Asperheim, a member of Orthopedic Associates, and Todd McCormack, a co-founder of Partners in Health. The nonprofit organization is regarded by many as one of the most effective charities in Haiti. The two have been friends since college.

“He called me and said there is just a huge need for orthopedic surgeons,” recalled Asperheim, 49. “He called to see if we could help out.”

Golladay was the first in the group to reach Haiti. After weighing the options, Partners in Health decided to set up operations at a rural mission clinic established by an Ohio family. It had two small operating rooms, with limited supplies and equipment.

Patients were pouring in, many with crushed limbs and life-threatening injuries. The medical team — including doctors from Boston, North Carolina, Florida and Los Angeles — made do with the resources at hand.

“There were crush injuries, open fractures, spinal injuries, crushed feet and ankles,” Golladay recalled. “There were some already infected with gangrene. In some cases, they were infected with maggots.”

He estimated the clinic took in some 2,000 people over a five-day period.

“They came by car, truck and bus. They walked. They came by donkey. They came at all hours of the day and night.”

McCormack of Partners in Health said the partnership that began with his call to Asperheim has paid great dividends.

“It’s been a great collaboration. Over and over, people have commented about what they have done. The community should have a great feeling about what they have done.”

There are others to thank. Amway and Steelcase are providing corporate jets to shuttle personnel back and forth. Spectrum Health donated medical supplies. Families pitched in on short notice.

Orthopedic surgeon Terrence Endres, 40, who was to leave Saturday for Haiti, shrugged off any notice of sacrifice.

“One individual, one person, it’s a chance to do something, whatever we can. I can’t consider it a sacrifice as much as an opportunity to see if we can do some good.”

Orthopedic surgeon David Bielema lived those words during his time in Haiti.

Before arriving at the clinic, Bielema served for a couple days in a hospital in Port-Au-Prince.

A newborn baby was bleeding to death as a desperate plea went out for a donor with a universal blood type. An emergency supply of Red Cross blood was still a day or two off.

Like Golladay before him, Bielema, 48, stepped forward to offer his own blood. Doctors scrambled to save the life of the baby, in shock and bleeding severely from the rectum. Hours later, the infant was stable and sleeping.

“I think everyone was down there to help. When somebody needs help, you do it,” Bielema said.

The clinic that was once a virtual emergency room is slowly turning to long-term needs. Golladay expects the majority of the 34 physicians in Orthopedic Associates to serve in Haiti over the next several months. But he expects the commitment to last for years in this poorest of nations in the western hemisphere.

For all he has seen, Golladay continues to draw hope from the Haitians themselves.

He recalled a child who had her leg amputated below the knee, leaving for home on crutches doctors improvised for her.

She returned for a post-operative checkup on those crutches, making a seven-mile trek to be seen. She smiled and presented doctors handwritten thank-you notes with colored pictures she had drawn.

“How amazing is that?” Golladay said.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/02/west_michigan_orthopedic_surge.html